More cheap hard drives

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I can’t believe how low prices on hard drives have gone. Newegg 2 TB external hard drive. USB 3, Samsung, $65. Reader IB sent this in: Best Buy 1 TB e
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My local Micro Center has had Western Digital Basic 1TB external USB 3 drives at around $60.00 for most of this year. Similar if not identical with the Best Buy offer.

That 2TB drive price looks very good. I have no need for such a large drive right now, but these prices are amazing.

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The prices here in Australia are not quite so good, but still affordable I would say. The price difference for technical items is an ongoing issue which was attempted to be addressed at different levels, however nothing seems to have been done about it.

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This begs the question of quality. Are these cheap hard drives going to last more than two years? I myself would rather pay $90.00 or more for a drive that lasted at least 5, 6 years or more than pay $60.00 for one that will give up the ghost in 2 or 3 years or less. It’s a matter of economics, saving money on better quality hardware.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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The Wirecutter have a useful and regularly-updated overview of portable hard drives, with recommendations: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-hard-drive/ .

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Just a note of caution here.
USB drives that offer hardware encryption do not safeguard your data from loss (only from theft)
– and unless you implement the password option offer no enhanced protection at all.

Why do I say this:
Most users do not realise that all your data is encrypted even if you never select to use this option.

The drive automatically encrypts and decrypts everything on the fly using the factory set random code embedded in the interface controller chip – and without that code your data is gone. If the drive controller fails your data is toast – unless you can transplant the chip to another identical controller board – which is not easy and will be very expensive.

You only benefit from hardware encryption if you activate the password feature – which would stop anyone else accessing your stolen drive.

https://arnolddatarecovery.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/wd-full-encryption-hard-drives/

The reason data encryption is always active is that if initially you selected not to use it and then later tried to activate it the drive would need to go back an encrypt all your data and rewrite every byte used on the drive. This would take a long time and so companies decided to hide the encryption from the user but failed to warn you of the risk to your data.

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WD Basic drives have never failed me. Seagate drives which cost more are a bit less reliable, but still have generally served me well. Price is not the main factor here. If the features are the same, the brand and the model make more difference than price alone.

To me, advanced features, or automatic backup software, are just more possible poiints of failure.

See DougCuk’s post below.

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They seem to be cheaper because they generally have lower spin, i.e 5400 rpm. This is suitable for backup in particular as they tend to have a longer life due to less heating generated.
The more expensive general use versions which are rarely sold for backup and are faster spin at 7200 rpm.

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